I am a PhD student in the Department of Economics at University of California-Santa Barbara. My research interests are in the areas of labor, development and financial economics.

My doctoral dissertation studies different aspects of financial and labor markets (particularly in developing countries) using various data sources and analytical tools. In my job market paper, I conduct duration analysis on a large commercial dataset to investigate the determinants of venture capital performance in China in the context of “international brain circulation”. Among other things, I found that the return venture capitalists, who received education abroad and returned to China, are less successful compared to the domestically-educated in bringing their invested companies to go public . A joint work with Professor Aashish Mehta explores the Indonesia Labor Force Survey and investigates the industrial wage inequality in Indonesia before and after the Asian Financial Crisis. We found that 1/3 of the wage differentials are due to unobserved individual ability, and 2/3 are due to industrial affiliations. Right now, I am using various dynamic panel data estimation techniques to study how venture capital investment affects total factor productivity in the US.

Publications:

The Productivity of Return Migrants:The Case of China's "Sea Turtles", IZA Journal of Migration, 2013 2:5 

Could More Jobs in "High-Wage" Sectors Reduce Wage Inequality? Evidence from Indonesia and the Asian Financial Crisis, with Aashish Mehta, accepted, World Development, 2013

How Could Chinese Students Maximize the Returns to Their American Degrees(by Emmeline Zhao), Wall Street Journal Asia, research cited, 03/18/2013. Line to web page http://cn.wsj.com/gb/20130318/LUX075012.asp?source=newsletter

Grants, Awards and Distinctions:

Academic Senate Travel Grant, UCSB (2013)

Department Travel Grant, Department of Economics, UCSB (2012) 

UCSB Humanities & Social Sciences Research Grant (2012)